Is Hitchin a nice place to live or is Hitchin rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Hitchin is on the up an up, it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Hitchin truly a nice place to live, or are Arlesey, Letchworth and Stevenage a lot better? Time to find out.
What are the crime levels like in Hitchin?
Using the latest Police street crime figures (typically from 3 months ago) we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Hitchin. Naturally the more urban and more central areas will have a higher rate of crime, but often you can be surprised when that is not the case and that is the area you want to move to.| Policing Area | Voilent Crimes |
|---|---|
| Walsworth | 49 |
| Hitchin | 49 |
| Ickleford | 29 |
| Oakfield | 28 |
| Hiz | 19 |
| Hitchin Hill | 18 |
| Great Wymondley | 9 |
| St Ippollitts | 3 |
| Charlton | 2 |
| Gosmore | 2 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Hitchin. These statistics are published by the government every 2-3 years. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. We've taken the rank average for wards in and around Hitchin and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Chesfield (Best) | 26432/32845 |
| Hitchin Walsworth | 26023/32845 |
| Hitchin Highbury | 23183/32845 |
| Symonds Green | 22928/32845 |
| Hitchin Priory | 21567/32845 |
| Hitchin Bearton | 19689/32845 |
| Cadwell | 19623/32845 |
| Letchworth South West | 18428/32845 |
| Letchworth Wilbury | 17756/32845 |
| Hitchin Oughton (Worst) | 11498/32845 |
Stevenage, looming dirty grey-stone buildings wherever you go
Your Health in Hitchin
If you are thinking of moving to Hitchin, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. We've taken the healh question from the latest census to find out and how Hitchin compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Luton | 1.2% | 3.73% |
| Central Bedfordshire | 0.84% | 3.02% |
| North Hertfordshire (Hitchin) | 0.81% | 3.11% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Hitchin. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Hitchin. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Hitchin Priory (Best) | 29783/32845 |
| Cadwell | 29246/32845 |
| Hitchin Highbury | 28433/32845 |
| Hitchin Bearton | 27801/32845 |
| Letchworth South West | 25288/32845 |
| Chesfield | 25262/32845 |
| Hitchin Walsworth | 25021/32845 |
| Letchworth Wilbury | 21225/32845 |
| Hitchin Oughton | 19693/32845 |
| Symonds Green (Worst) | 16699/32845 |
Stevenage is a town where you keep your head down when walking
Deprivation in Hitchin
Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average Index of Multiple Deprivation rank of all the LSOAs in the wards in and around Hitchin. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Hitchin Priory (Best) | 29829/32845 |
| Hitchin Highbury | 29214/32845 |
| Hitchin Bearton | 26882/32845 |
| Chesfield | 25620/32845 |
| Hitchin Walsworth | 25102/32845 |
| Letchworth South West | 24500/32845 |
| Cadwell | 20128/32845 |
| Letchworth Wilbury | 17913/32845 |
| Hitchin Oughton | 16285/32845 |
| Symonds Green (Worst) | 15631/32845 |
Average rent in Hitchin
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Hitchin are dated September 2021. They are split into three figures, the lower quartile, mean and upper quartile. If you recieve housing benefit or the housing benefit section of Universal Credit, the lower quartile is at the top limit of what would be affordable. The mean is the average you'd expect to pay for a rental property and the upper quartile is the average rental cost of the most expensive 25% of properties in Hitchin.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Hitchin
If you are thinking of moving to Hitchin, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. The government publish regular statistics on gross weekly pay and pay per hour.
